Bridge of Spies

Bridge of Spies is the best film from the past year.  I would like to personally apologize to Steven Spielberg for not going to see this film in the theater, I finally saw it streaming a few weeks back.  Spielberg tells a good story, a story that is relevant today.  Tom Hanks plays a man who defies our preconceived notions of lawyers, principled, thoughtful and patriotic.  The standout performance is by Mark Rylance as a captured Russian spy; his subtlety and the relationship developed onscreen between him and the Hanks character was excellent.

*Full disclosure:  I just saw Mark Rylance win (deservedly so) for Best Supporting Actor.

Room and Spotlight

I’m in a little bit of a rush, because the Academy Awards have already started, and I want to have reviews in on all the Best Picture nominees before the winner is announced.  So I am going to tell you why I liked each of these two films:

The makers of Room believe that hope and healing are possible after even the most traumatic of conditions and experiences.  It also has a policewoman who does some excellent police work, a boy who is extremely brave, and a young woman who definitely deserves a Mother’s Day card this year (and next).

The makers of Spotlight believe in the pursuit of truth.  I think that truth and the pursuit of truth can be two completely different things.  This movie focuses and glorifies the pursuit of truth; journalists are portrayed as society’s heroes.  While the filmmakers could easily have gone too far and ventured into preachy cliché territory; I was pleasantly surprised that the film stayed grounded.  

Brooklyn The Big Short

Halfway through Brooklyn Jess asked me why it had been nominated for Best Picture.  We had gone to see The Big Short the night before, and the same question could be asked of that film.  Both films are entertaining, and both have been expertly made, but neither of them are The Godfather Part II or Braveheart.  That being said, I would suggest that films that achieve the level of greatness are few and far between.  I’ll review Brooklyn and The Big Short for what they are, not what they aren’t.

I lied.  Brooklyn is exactly like The Godfather Part II except that it doesn’t have any gangsters.

The Big Short is essentially a remake of Braveheart except that the main characters don’t wear kilts.

I hope that you realize that I am exaggerating; yet please bear with me while I expand upon my comparisons…  Brooklyn is about the immigrant experience, specifically about a young Irish girl’s experience in Brooklyn, New York circa 1952.  The Godfather Part II is also about a young immigrant who is both a product of and a manipulator of this land of opportunity.   While Brooklyn is exactly one horse head short of being The Godfather Part II, it’s still a pretty decent film.

The Big Short is about underdogs who take on the Big Bad Banks, and as everyone knows underdogs are always good, and banks of any kind (except the Bailey Savings and Loan) are unabashedly evil.  I have exactly two problems with this movie; the first being that it has no purpose for existing.  Nothing new is revealed, nothing is very interesting.  We all know that the banks totally screwed us over, then we bailed them out, and now they’re doing t again.  Sure it’s more complicated than that, but my summary is pretty much all you need to know.  The second problem I have is the intention cutting-short editing; cutting a scene short should have a purpose, not be a style.  So I guess The Big Short has little to do with Braveheart, but maybe I kept you reading.